Democracy turning to Evil

Although I dream of the day when there is true democracy in every Arab country, I am becoming suspicious of anyone calling for it nowadays! The "US of A" has turned the word democracy into an obscene word the day it used it to justify its ill-advised misdeeds!

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried"
Sir Winston Churchill

Right, it sure beats dictatorship, and no sane human being would turn her back to the personal rights enjoyed by every US citizen today, especially in the Arab world where the Governments and the police are justifiably feared! But as I always say "There is always a But!". And this But is a big one, it's a mistake for the US - or anyone for that matter - to become pompous (as if they invented gravity) and in the process turning off their audiance.

Then there is the famous "But Israel is a democracy" whenever our poor leaders try to justify their dreams for matching Israel's military or nuclear power, democracy my butt! This "Sole" democracy is practicing state terrorism, assassinations and genocide, not to mention its disregard for international law. If it is really a democracy, then all its actions are sanctioned by the majority of its people, and that makes the majority of voting Israeli citizens terrorists too!

No one is buying that "Trust us we are a democracy" nonsense from Israel or the US. The American vote is still terribly splintered, and what finally sells a candidate is always internal issues, so please do not ask us to buy into any of it, Arabs do not need anyone's luggage of internal issues to be added to their worries.

We observe the US famous VITO being exercised against everyone's will in the United Nations, we have seen how this true democracy advocating country is acting UNILATERALLY, we have seen how this democracy failed to result in accountability when the Iraq WMD lies were unearthed, I am yet to see the "big chief" apologizing for any of the lost lives due to his decision to go to war based on his own or other's lies.

"Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship"
Harry S Truman

And who said that the American Flavor of democracy is the only alternative for our salvation? There are many models currently being practiced successfully in Europe & Asia, also 1,400 years ago, the Arabs experienced true democracy with the birth of Islam, at a time when the rest of the world was suffering from racism, gender discrimination dictatorships and lawlessness, it was only during the past 100 years or so that women and minorities in the west started to have rights! It remains true Arabs have deviated from implementing what makes them civilized, but it is all still there..

Actually Islamic democracy combines the best of both the spiritual and material worlds, fuses their values together in a fool-proof doctrine, where the human being is empowered to do good to herself and to her society, to challenge a ruler's authority, to have a say and speak out without fear. Nevertheless, I am for an immediate "ready to wear" kind of western democracy until Islamist reconcile with their religion and themselves again.

So to sum it up, we are getting disgusted from the current American version of democracy, and it is working against our own yearn to establish just societies in the Arab World. Democracy should not be used as an excuse if you are truly advocating freedom, when human decency is contradicted with any political doctrine, it will factor into its own downfall.
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Transparency and Accountability - How much does an Arab President or King Make

I read in this Arabic article about the salaries of presidents and kings in - and out - of the Arab world, I was shocked to say the least, not from the numbers (needs verification), but from the direct correlation of how bad a ruler performs & its being directly proportional to the wealth or salaries they hoard!

If George Bush earns $400K a year for being the leader of the strongest nation on earth, and given the high expenses in the US, compared to the relatively much lower costs of living in our dear Arab world, it is fair to say that no Arab leader should be making 1/20th (One twentieth) of what George is making!

It is notable that South Asia has worked out an excellent "Profit Sharing" mechanism, the more profit the country makes, the higher the bonus for its leader, I seriously demand that our parliaments implement this system! Although our most precious Arab leaders will start out paying from their own pockets, but eventually I am more than sure they will wise up and start running their countries as a good business, in that case I am for multiplying their bonuses without limits !

I personally do not think that whatever any ruler pockets, no matter how much it is, can affect the national economy of any Arab country, the problem is not in any of this, the catastrophe is in what follows this "pocketing", to cover it up, and to clear it, a ruler has to look the other way too many times, approve corrupt key people in his government, who in turn help out smaller thieves in getting away with their lute! In what turns into an avalanche of corruption !!!

Now let me give you my very own pearl of wisdom:

Without accountability, you are just asking for corruption!
Without transparency, power corruption will flourish!

1VPA = One VERY Pissed Arab

Poor Arab Rulers (A Devil's Advocate)

"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong"

Voltaire

It has become very fashionable to put down Arab Rulers: Kings, Presidents, Prices, Sultans ..
And without doubt it is mostly well deserved, they are the symbols of our time, but
Arab Rulers could be unlucky in many ways:

• Their reign happens to be in a period when the whole Arab nation is in its weakest economically, politically and militarily.
• They "inherited" a majority of un-appreciating, all talk and no work, lazy, uneducated, corrupt, over indulging, consumers, unorganized, politically unaware .. Citizens!
• They were unfit and untrained to handle the global political situation that they were thrown into all of a sudden, there was a gap, they courageously stepped in to fill it all with good intentions.
• They are surrounded with hypocritical "Brown Nosing" followers that feed them crap about how great and loved they are, and how they will go down in history as heroes.
• They are manipulated (directly or indirectly) by well seasoned US & Israeli administrations and intelligence, that knows which buttons to push, when to squeeze and how to ease, "when to roll them, when to hold them, when to walk away and when to run" while they have not evolved yet to that level of sophistication, finding themselves always
  reacting and putting out fires instead of planning and executing.
• They inherited armies that are too strong and influential politically not militarily, so they have to walk a fine line in every decision.
• They also "inherited" economically unfeasible countries, consuming more, producing less, in debt (even the oil rich ones) and the prospect of a turn-around can only be long term.
• They are not accustomed to being accountable by their people, they own the media and control the parliaments (if there are any!), and no one second guesses their decisions, accordingly it's not their fault, they are not prophets after all ..
• The Palestine - Iraq issues offer an excellent divergence from internal issues, the majority of the population is too angry with the outside world to notice the smoke of their own brining shoes! So why rock the boat?
• Whenever they are criticized, it is by an opposition that is "pushed" by some other Arab country or the west, or by enemies jealous of their success in leadership.
• Arabs are probably the only remaining nation still producing songs about its leaders, praising their wisdom and importance, wouldn't that get to your head too?
• They grow up in their posts (excluding the kings), and truly do not see any viable replacement to take over after their awaited retirement, they are stuck in this responsibility and truly believe that their country will collapse without their wisdom.

This list of excuses could go on ..
Still, my heart is not bleeding for any of them.
They are responsible for where we are now and the big hole we are diving into.
Until a nation gets "balls" to fight for what it believes in, the hole remains bottomless!

"Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed

no better than we deserve"

George Bernard Shaw

Over and Out
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Inside the mind of the frustrated & desperate

"Mankind censure injustice fearing that they may be the victims of it, and not because they shrink from committing it."

Plato

Imagine for a moment you came home to find your wife (or husband) and children in the street in front of what used to be your house!

Turns out someone has moved in and thrown your family into the street.

Imagine that there is no way in hell you can get your house back, no police can return what is rightfully yours, the place where you grew up as a child, the place that your family has owned for generations and centuries is just gone!

How helpless would you feel seeing your children becoming homeless overnight?

No prospects for education, no childhood to live, no future to look forward to!

You also lost your job! Yes, the people that took your house also took over your work place, hired their relatives and if you are lucky, they will hire you for scraps.

A correction is due here: There Is a Law against what has just happened to you, and a police to oversee that law, but this police is helpless in giving you back your rights ..

And to add insult to injury, the only person that can set things right is a Bully, an unchallenged power, but guess what? The Bully takes the side of the settlers (occupiers).

And as if all this was not enough, the settlers come and go unchecked and armed, threatening your family and preventing your family from going to hospital and building a wall preventing your kids from reaching their schools.

But hey, all is not lost yet, you are only remembered and heard when someone hurts the settlers, they will give you a small part of your land back in exchange for your leaving them alone in "peace".

Its not due to their generosity, guilt , or due to pressure by external powers, its only because they need to settle down, make their life better, attract investment, and reduce the tension they are living in, they are willing to throw you crumbs in exchange for your seizing to become a threat and an inconvenience!

So, do you have any choice in the matter? Would you die to give your children a better chance at the future?

Who is to blame for the "civilians" getting killed in Israel?

It's exactly like if the US marines took along their spouses and kids to Iraq! Who do you blame if their families get hurt in the battle?

They left their homes from all over the world and moved into Palestine, leaving behind houses, jobs, neighbors and citizen benefits, taking along their families in a War Zone, into a land that they did not own, into someone else's home.

I am totally against targeting children and civilians anywhere in the world, but in order to make any judgment you need to study very well the options the Palestinians have, and the mindset of a frustrated, desperate human cornered, alone and empty-handed against one of the most powerful and brutal armies in the world, an Army that HAS committed and still continues to commit documented atrocities against civilians.

My heart sinks with every civilian casualty, but I partially blame those who put those children in the cross fire in the first place, especially if they had a choice!!

I wish the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab countries has enough military power to force Israel to think twice before breaking every law known to humanity.

I wish the United nations had enough teeth to prevent thugs from bullying weaker nations, to stop war and to enforce its own resolutions!

I wish the Israeli government did not target civilians in massacres and did not torture prisoners.

I wish the Jews learn from their own history, and remember how it feels to be discriminated against.

I wish the Palestinians are given more choices, and seriously hope they will be able to forgive someday.

But we live in an imperfect world, and if you judge without all the above in consideration, you would be adding another injustice to the victims, and without Justice there is no peace.

This has been a trip for me Inside the mind of the frustrated & desperate, I will now try to revert to my just being hopeful but still very Pissed!
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Zarqawi fact or fiction

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power.

We have guided missiles and misguided men. "

Martin Luther King Jr.

The US administration cannot draw funds and public support without giving its enemy a name, a face, traits that contradict the American lifestyle, a motive for that enemy (if available) and a clear and present threat in this enemy to all that is "good".

Zarqawi happens to be the this symbol, associated now with the word criminal and terrorist and finally to get more mileage out of him there is now the "Zarqawi Group" too!

I guess I should repeat, I am not for terrorist cowardly kidnapping of civilians, I am only for justified resistance to foreign occupation(s) !!

Back to Zarqawi, no one knew of him let alone see him as a hero, but the US is making it happen, all the better so that if he is ever captured or killed people will rejoice and feel safe(r), or at least feel like a big accomplishment has taken place, here the public is being misguided, and the real motive of the fighters is masked.

It's never as simple as "they fight us because they hate us" or they "hate our way of life", no one goes to war for that, and until the real reason for the presence of those fighters in Iraq is addressed, and the real reasons behind the US's presence in Iraq are uncovered, this farce will continue unchallenged by the American public, who by the way are the only owners of this mess, with their choice of administration, if you think for one moment that it is turning, or going to turn towards becoming an issue in the hands of the Iraqi people, you are missing the whole point of why the US went to Iraq in the first place! It's totally about exercising power and strategic interests, but that will be the topic for another post.

I did not mean for this blog to be totally dedicated to the Iraqi issues, but I felt that Iraq is more urgent than all other matters, I am looking forward also to my coming posts on Development in third world countries, Science and Technology in the Middle East, Arab Governments, Bin Laden, and most importantly Israel and Palestine.
Over and Out
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Civilians Kidnapping

For all the non-Arab readers let me give you yet another Arab perspective:The way I see it whenever news of another kidnapping airs, what's being hijacked is Islam itself.

Islam the beautiful peaceful religion, is abused, misrepresented and scarred with every word those idiots utter, with every banner hanged behind them on a wall as if to give them a justification or an excuse! If they were so courageous, what are they doing capturing civilians?

Their enemy is clearly the US army! And even if they capture soldiers, Islam is very clear about how to treat them, preserving their dignity and life long before the Geneva conventions and Abu Gharib trials.

I am not saying that I am against the resistance, my position is that the US is an occupation force no matter what it choses to call itself, in black and white resistance is justified. In grey scale, use their presence to establish peace and democracy, and if they still refuse to leave kill the very last fighting soldier!

Just stop dragging Islam in your dirty agenda or God knows what it is that really motivates you to be so cruel hearted and film the slaughter of a human being and distribute it to the media.
To all I say this has nothing to do with Islam, has nothing to do with Arab chivalry and should be regarded as just another criminal act, committed by misguided or misguiding individuals no matter what their religion happens to be.

An Introduction to a Pissed Arab

Hello, this spot is dedicated to the ramblings of an Arab, I do not claim to represent any majority (or minority) of opinion, only my own.

"Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city,

it might be better to change the locks"
Doug Larson

Maybe you now know partially what this Arab is pissed about, but lets not forget those that "elect" those politicians, and those who fail to change those politicians, when they remain in power for so long that they start to stink! That now applies both to the the Bush as well as most Arab Governments

So let's recap:

• This Blog is about Politics: No, it about everything that need to change, politics is just a good start!
• This Blogger is an Arab: True
• This Arab is Pissed: Most of the time, at least whenever I think, read or relax!
• Then this Blog must be about advocating Democracy: Real democracy might not be a bad start, but it would be an over-simplification of what ails this world and what angers this Arab!
• Ok so this Blog is about change: Hopefully, on many levels, otherwise we're screwed!
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